“Keep Your Finger on the Text,” D.A. Carson Speaks on Gender
Brent Nelson
March 19, 2009
D.A. Carson tells conference-goers: "Keep your finger on the text. Say all that it says and refuse to go too far beyond it." Principle and application, joined but distinct, made up a large theme in Dr. Carson's two presentations at CBMW's Different by Design 2009 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota this past February.
"Be very strong and clear on what the Scripture says. Try to work out the applicability fairly and even-handedly within the context of your local church. But don't turn that into the new legal structure for all Christians such that this is where you draw your line of demarcation. In other words: get the center right and think center-bounded set. Don't fudge on what the Bible says!"
Such was the counsel from Dr. Carson to a group of 375 pastors and church leaders in the midst of his presentation on 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Dr. Carson was offering comment on the guidance the Apostle Paul gives in that passage with regard to the differing roles Scripture assigns to men and women in the local church.
"If you come to the conclusion that the best articulated and sophisticated, knowledgeable exegesis of Scripture, carefully thought-through, can be graced with the word ‘complementarian;' if you come to that conclusion - stop apologizing for it. In other words, at some point you have to say, ‘This is for your good, it is for my good, it is for the church's good, it is for the culture's good.....God knows the design, he knows what he is doing. And so you cannot use your culturally-located questions to become a back-door way of saying that you're uncomfortable with exegesis, that it seems to me, leads to distortion in every domain."
You can see the strength of Dr. Carson's presentations. With thanks to our co-sponsor the Fidelis Foundations, we invite you to listen to both sessions for insight on a variety of topics and strong edification. The first is entitled "The Flow of Thought in 1 Timothy 2" and the second, "Is the Culture Shaping Us or Are We Shaping the Culture?"
